EP1038240B1 - Information management system - Google Patents

Information management system Download PDF

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Publication number
EP1038240B1
EP1038240B1 EP98947682A EP98947682A EP1038240B1 EP 1038240 B1 EP1038240 B1 EP 1038240B1 EP 98947682 A EP98947682 A EP 98947682A EP 98947682 A EP98947682 A EP 98947682A EP 1038240 B1 EP1038240 B1 EP 1038240B1
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EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
information
user
profile
data
management system
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Expired - Lifetime
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EP98947682A
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German (de)
English (en)
French (fr)
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EP1038240A1 (en
Inventor
Ian Broster
Michael Worsley
Duncan Maidment
Dipak Patel
Paul Clough
Garry Casson
Alan John King
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British Telecommunications PLC
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British Telecommunications PLC
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Publication of EP1038240A1 publication Critical patent/EP1038240A1/en
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    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
    • G06F16/00—Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
    • G06F16/90—Details of database functions independent of the retrieved data types
    • G06F16/95—Retrieval from the web
    • G06F16/953—Querying, e.g. by the use of web search engines
    • G06F16/9535—Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
    • G06F16/00—Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
    • G06F16/90—Details of database functions independent of the retrieved data types
    • G06F16/95—Retrieval from the web
    • G06F16/953—Querying, e.g. by the use of web search engines
    • G06F16/9538—Presentation of query results
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
    • G06F2216/00—Indexing scheme relating to additional aspects of information retrieval not explicitly covered by G06F16/00 and subgroups
    • G06F2216/01—Automatic library building
    • Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
    • Y10—TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC
    • Y10S—TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
    • Y10S707/00—Data processing: database and file management or data structures
    • Y10S707/99931—Database or file accessing
    • Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
    • Y10—TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC
    • Y10S—TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
    • Y10S707/00—Data processing: database and file management or data structures
    • Y10S707/99931—Database or file accessing
    • Y10S707/99933—Query processing, i.e. searching
    • Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
    • Y10—TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC
    • Y10S—TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
    • Y10S707/00—Data processing: database and file management or data structures
    • Y10S707/99941—Database schema or data structure
    • Y10S707/99942—Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation
    • Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
    • Y10—TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC
    • Y10S—TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
    • Y10S707/00—Data processing: database and file management or data structures
    • Y10S707/99941—Database schema or data structure
    • Y10S707/99943—Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
    • Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
    • Y10—TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC
    • Y10S—TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
    • Y10S707/00—Data processing: database and file management or data structures
    • Y10S707/99941—Database schema or data structure
    • Y10S707/99944—Object-oriented database structure
    • Y10S707/99945—Object-oriented database structure processing

Definitions

  • the present invention relates to information management systems.
  • a corporate environment there may be in-house databases and shared word processing environments, and the user may have access to an information network such as the Internet.
  • the Internet is a known communications system based on a plurality of separate communications networks distributed across several countries but connected together. It provides a rich source of information from many different providers but this very richness creates a problem in accessing specific information as there is no central monitoring and control.
  • Each agent generally comprises functionality to perform a task or tasks on behalf of an entity (human or machine-based) in an autonomous manner, together with local data, or means to access data, to support the task or tasks. For instance, an information agent might select documents of relevance to a topic or user. It would therefore need access to the documents, processing functionality to select the relevant documents, and data to enable the selection to take place.
  • JASPER JavaScript
  • JASPER uses a keyword set for the user concerned.
  • JASPER can extend the keyword set to pick up documents that would not have been located otherwise.
  • PROSUM information summariser described in the applicant's co-pending European patent application number 97302616.4. This summarises information in accordance with a user's particular interest rather than simply in accordance with the content of the document. Hence a user looking at the results of a search and reading the summary produced by PROSUM will be alerted to a document in which the user's interest is represented by only a reference within the document, the document being principally about something else. Such documents tend not to be picked up by more conventional search tools.
  • an information management system for a plurality of users comprising:
  • an information management system for a plurality of users comprising:
  • Information in this context means any information whether presented in words, images or computer code for instance, and would include a computer file or a computer program, Internet pages, electronic mail documents, text files, word-processed documents, or multimedia objects such as movie, picture or sound files.
  • a "user” might well be another piece of equipment. A user is not necessarily a human entity in the context of this specification.
  • an information profile generated by the user input tool in either the first or second aspect comprises a data set which characterises the information but is relatively a much smaller data set than the information itself.
  • an information profile may comprise an identifier and a set of keywords, or it may comprise additional information such as creation and download dates, authorship and even an abstract or summary.
  • Embodiments of the first and second aspects of the present invention offer a particularly useful information management environment for a plurality of users who might be interested in similar topics.
  • the control means further comprises means to log user identity information against an information profile generated from information input by that user. This enables the control means to exercise access and modification controls between that user and other users.
  • Embodiments of the first and second aspects of the present invention can provide an extremely useful data storage and management environment for a plurality of users.
  • the information profile generated by the data input tool may characterise a project and may be stored as a profile for the project.
  • the control means may be arranged to give access to the information profile, and/or associated information, only to the user providing the user input information. This might be done for instance by registering an identifier for that user against an identifier for the information profile, or by adding the identifier for the user to the information profile itself. Such a user might be called an owner in relation to that information profile.
  • the control means may give access to additional users, but not the capability to modify the information profile and/or associated information.
  • control means further provides management capability for the user recorded as owner in that the control means may maintain a register of identifiers for other users having access in respect of the information profile, the owner having unique control over the contents of the register.
  • the system further comprises user selection means, for selecting results output by the data retrieval tool, the selected results being persistently stored.
  • the results may be persistently stored in relation to the relevant user, and/or may be persistently stored in relation to the information profile used by the data retrieval tool to locate the results.
  • Results selected for persistent storage for instance providing closely relevant background information to the information profile, may even be user specific so that one user retrieving the virtual case file in relation to the information profile will be provided with a different set of stored results from that provided to another user in relation to the same information profile.
  • the way in which the data retrieval tool reports data it finds by searching includes a measure of the relevance of each piece of data to the information profile used in the search.
  • the measure of association can be applied in a discrete rather than a continuous way. For instance, it might be used to separate search results into two or more layers, the first layer being strongly relevant to a request and the second layer being weakly relevant to the request.
  • the user can preferably select how many layers are to be reported in response to a request. This is in contrast with known search engines which report a fixed number of search results rather than all the results to a certain level of relevance.
  • a capability reserved for users recorded as owners is the assignment of other users to an information profile.
  • the information profile may represent a project.
  • Each project may have a set of users assigned to it. This can provide a management facility in that, when a project is completed, the project owner can flag the completion to the system. The system then deletes the list of assigned user identifiers.
  • the project data set, or profile can then be reactivated at a later date or simply deleted from the system by the owner.
  • a system according to an embodiment of the present invention can provide a transparent interface to a plurality of search, retrieval and/or analysis tools, the user being able to use the system without having to select and operate the different tools. This can be done by giving the system processing capability such that it can analyse a requirement in context and select a tool appropriately.
  • the data storage means of embodiments of the present invention may comprise a single database or a plurality of databases.
  • one or more search, retrieval and/or analysis tools may be provided with its own database, in addition to there being a system database.
  • the (or any) database may of course also be distributed or centralised.
  • IMS Information Management System
  • a profile may be a meta-data summary of the content the respective object, or a profile may comprise a simple list of keywords.
  • a profile may include information to enable the object to be retrieved and for its relevance to a particular topic of consideration to be assessed within the IMS.
  • profiles are created by means of functionality described in the Applicant's co-pending JASPER patent application.
  • Certain types of object within the IMS have particular properties.
  • a "document” is an ordinary object, a "document” representing either a textual document - eg. a WEB page, a text file or a word-processed document - or another multimedia-type object - eg. a video recording, a picture or a sound file.
  • a project is a project object.
  • a "project” is an object in very much the same way as an ordinary object with the addition that users may work on a project and modify it.
  • a user may also be considered an object within the IMS in much the same way as a project.
  • a user's interests are represented by a user profile that may be modified either manually by the user or automatically by the IMS. Links may be established or suggested between user objects and any other objects stored within the IMS.
  • IMS Information Management System
  • a Server 160 arranged to control information flow between components of each of the functional parts, for example to receive requests for information and to launch one or more components in order to generate a response to such requests.
  • the server 160 is connected to a Database component 105, comprising a store for an IMS Database, and to a Local Search Engine 110 for use in searching the IMS database 105 according to requirements for local information retrieval of the server 160. Also included within the LOCAL STORAGE are User Profiles 100 and Project Profiles 102, as will be described below.
  • the principal means of access to external sources of information for the IMS - is provided a series of components, each connected to the Internet 155 to assist with searching and retrieval of information according to requirements of the connected server 160.
  • an "intelligent" agent or other software agent 145 and search engines 140 may be provided to search and to retrieve information from the Internet 155 in response to specific requests by the server 160.
  • a component 150 may be provided to assist with version control of externally retrieved documents.
  • the server 160 interfaces to the agent components 140 and 145 and the version control means 150, by way of a Common Gateway Interface (CGI) 165.
  • CGI interfaces are known in the art, for example from books listed on the Internet at Universal Resource Locator (URL) http://www.boutell.com/faq/books.htm
  • one or more Profiling Agents 115 and Data Analysis Tools 120 are provided, each connected to the server 160 via a CGI 165. Physical or logical connections may also be provided between the profiling agents 115 and the LOCAL STORAGE for project (102) and user (100) profiles. Physical or logical connections may also be provided between the analysis tools 120 and a number of other IMS components, including the stored profiles 100 and 102 and a Relationship Tool 125.
  • the server 160 is connected, via a Common Gateway Interface (CGI) 165, to components designed to support the USER INTERFACE functional part of the system.
  • CGI Common Gateway Interface
  • the server 160 is connected to the Relationship Tool 125 to provide the principal means for the graphical visualisation of information at the user interface.
  • the server 160 may also be connected to a Speech Conversion component 135 so that certain pieces of information may be made available from the server 160 to the USER INTERFACE as spoken messages.
  • the server 160 may be connected to a Personal Agent component 130, arranged to monitor user input received from the USER INTERFACE, to supply user input to other components of the IMS via the server 160, and to provide information to the USER INTERFACE in response to actions triggered within the IMS by user input.
  • a Personal Agent component 130 arranged to monitor user input received from the USER INTERFACE, to supply user input to other components of the IMS via the server 160, and to provide information to the USER INTERFACE in response to actions triggered within the IMS by user input.
  • the USER INTERFACE functional part provides an interface to each of a number of Users 175 by means of a World Wide Web (WWW) Browser Interface 170.
  • the browser interface 170 is connected to the relationship tool 125, in particular to enable output from the relationship tool to be displayed graphically to users of the IMS, to the personal agent component 130 and to the speech conversion component 135.
  • the Server 160 provides the principal controlling means within the IMS, linking the functionality of each of the participating component parts together, controlling information flows between components and launching components to obtain information or process information as necessary.
  • the server 160 may make CGI calls to appropriate components in response to input received from other components of the IMS, and may supply resulting output from one component to another.
  • the server 160 may perform the role of a gateway between components of the IMS, the principal functionality of the system being embodied in those components.
  • more system-specific functionality may alternatively be implemented within the server component itself.
  • some aspects of data analysis performed by the analysis tools 120 may be incorporated within the server 160.
  • the server 160 is intended to hide from users the particular implementation of IMS components and the intercommunication required between those components to achieve particular functionality.
  • Search engines may be provided to carry out searches for externally stored information - search engine 140 - or for information stored internally within the IMS database 105 - local search engine 110.
  • Local search engine 110 may be arranged to operate in real time in response to user input conveyed by the browser interface 170, through continuous communication with the personal agent 130, for example when a user enters a new topic description.
  • a local search of the IMS database may reveal stored references to data objects of relevance to the user input, including stored references that may have been established by other users of the IMS in relation to the same or other topics.
  • Data objects identified by the local search engine 110 may be listed on a display by the browser interface 170 via the personal agent 130, or displayed graphically by the relationship tool 125.
  • search engines 140 may search the Internet 155 for relevant documents over a longer period, using for example a search profile constructed by the profiling agent 115 of a user-entered document or topic description.
  • the results of the external search may be displayed by the relationship tool 125, including information derived from the search results by the analysis tools 120.
  • a user may limit the extent to which a search engine 110, 140 will search, for example by specifying a "radius" of interest.
  • search engines are known for use in searching the Internet 155, for example "YAHOO".
  • PROSEARCH may be used, the functionality of which is described in the Applicant's JASPER co-pending patent application referenced above.
  • Analysis Tools 120 may be provided, connected to the server 160, to receive results of information searches by searching engines 110 and 140, or intelligent agent 145 for example, and to derive further information from those results, drawing on information stored in the IMS database and from profiles relating to users and/or to projects.
  • the analysis tools may be arranged to assess the strength of an association between an object, represented for example by a project profile 102 or user profile 100, and a data object returned by a searching engine.
  • the returned data object may itself be represented by a data object profile created by the profiling agent 115.
  • the analysis result expressed as a relevance score relating to strength of association, may be used by the relationship tool 125 to indicate, graphically, the strength of an association between objects returned by a search, for example by varying the thickness or length of a line connecting a pair of representative node icons on the display.
  • Data objects are often related. They have things in common with other data objects, for example two text documents may share a common set of keywords. Tools, such as JASPER, exist which can find these relationships, but it is often difficult to present these relationships to the user in a way that is both clear and yet not restrictive. Known methods of presenting relationships may also fail to offer a personalised view to each user.
  • the totality of information available to the SEARCH & RETRIEVAL functional part of the IMS may be looked upon as a huge network (or graph) of connected objects, with relationships between them.
  • the aim of the Relationship Tool 125 is to present to a user 175 via the browser interface 170, in a clear way, the small subset of the objects that the user actually needs to see and to allow the user to view, at a glance, the relationships between data.
  • the relationship tool 125 is intended to provide neither proofs nor deductions; simply to help the user to see relevant information, presented in particular as a multi-way mapping between relevant objects known within the IMS.
  • the principal functions of the relationship tool 125 are as follows:
  • An algorithm may be implemented by the relationship tool 125 to generate a graphical representation of data objects and the relationships between them based upon a list of keywords supplied, for example, by the user or derived by the profiling agent 115.
  • the relationship tool 125 may provide access to the following to enable the graph building algorithm to operate:
  • the relationship tool 125 may implement an algorithm to take user-entered keywords and to present relevant information retrieved by the IMS search agents 140, 110, including the following procedural steps:
  • FIG. 2 an example of a graph is shown as may be produced by the algorithm described above.
  • the search topic represented by a centrally placed node 200.
  • the Search Procedure returns a pruned list of data items to be represented by nodes of relevance to the central search topic 200, for example "DOC 1" represented by node 205, connected to the central search node 200 by a relatively long line indicative of lower relevance, and "DOC 5" represented by node 210, connected to the search node 200 by a short line, indicating higher relevance.
  • the "While" loop in the above algorithm may then further analyse the node of highest relevance, node 210, taking only the most relevant keywords contained in a profile of the node to perform a further more specialised search. This further search may result in two additional nodes on the graph, nodes 215 and 220, linked to the node 210.
  • a personal agent may be included in the IMS, connected to the server 160 via a CGI 165, and to the browser interface 170.
  • An example of a Personal Agent is a "Remembrance Agent” as described in "Remembrance Agent: A Continuously Running Automated Information Retrieval System” by Bradley J. Rhodes and Thad Stanner, published in the proceedings of the First International Conference on the Practical Application of Intelligent Agents and Multi-agent Technology, referenced above.
  • the personal agent 130 may be arranged to continuously monitor user input from the USER INTERFACE and to initiate searches for related information in real time, presenting the results of such searches to the use via the browser interface 170. For example, a user may register a topic of interest with the IMS, defining the topic by means of a description or series of keywords entered at within the browser interface 170. The personal agent 130 may, for example, capture keywords as they are typed by the user, and submit them one by one to a local search engine 110, via the server 160. If the local search engine finds relevant data objects referenced within the IMS database 105, then they may be presented to the user via the browser interface 170 by the personal agent 130, or displayed graphically by the relationship tool 125.
  • a speech conversion component 135 may be included, employing speech synthesis technology such as that provided by the "LAUREATE" product by the present applicants, to provide, if appropriate, a speech representation of data objects presented at the user interface. For example, a speech summary of a document may be provided to a user after clicking on the respective node icon displayed by the relationship tool 125. Alternatively, a sequence of speech representations of documents found as a result of an overnight search may be provided to a user automatically after login to the IMS.
  • All objects in the IMS may have a profile.
  • a profiling agent 115 may be included in the IMS to create object profiles for various types of object.
  • a document may be presented to the profiling agent 115 to create a document profile comprising meta-data representing the document.
  • the meta-data document profile may be stored in the IMS database 105 via the server 160.
  • the JASPER product is used to implement the functionality of the profiling agent 115 in the IMS.
  • a document may be converted, for example at the server 160 CGI interface, to a Web page format before being presented to JASPER for profiling.
  • Documents presented to the profiling agent 115 may originate from a variety of sources in the IMS and the profiling result may be used for a variety of purposes.
  • a user-entered document or project description may be submitted for profiling by way of the browser interface 170 and the server 160.
  • the project may be created by the server as a CGI script which generates an HTML document, based upon the project description, for submission to the profiling agent 115.
  • the resulting profile may be stored by the profiling agent 115 in the LOCAL STORAGE as a project profile 102 for use in searching for related data objects by the searching engines 110 and 140, or used by "intelligent" agents 145.
  • Data objects returned by internal or external searching may similarly be profiled by the profiling agent 115 for storage in the IMS database 105 or inclusion in a project profile 102 or user profile 100.
  • Data object profiles also provide a convenient basis from which the analysis tools 120 may derive further information of interest to users of the IMS.
  • Project profiles may be enhanced at any time by the user owning the project through manual addition or amendment of keywords.
  • a set of users for instance employees in a corporate environment or police and their associates, have access to the system via personal computers or other suitable terminals 175.
  • Each user is registered in the system in a known manner by use of a Worldwide Web browser interface 170 to a Web server 160.
  • the user provides at least a minimum set of information about themselves, the minimum set including for instance identification (name and contact details) and a set of keywords representing the user's particular interests.
  • the minimum set of information is stored, under control of a control process running at the server 160, in the system database 105.
  • One of these tools may provide functionality for interfacing with the user to obtain the minimum set of information. (This type of functionality is known and not therefore further described herein.)
  • the set of keywords provided by the user is then supplied to each component of the system which requires it. This might include for instance the profiling agent 115, the intelligent agent 145, the personal agent 130, the relationship tool 125 and the analysis tools 120.
  • the system includes the functionality of known searching tools, once the user has registered, these tools will start to run in respect of the set of keywords it receives.
  • the personal agent 130 may start to monitor existing entries in the system database 105, via the local search engine 110, and ongoing inputs and/or communications by other users, as soon as the user profile has been supplied to it.
  • the personal agent 130 there are further search capabilities to which the user profile is supplied which work over a longer period and therefore report to the user after a fixed time interval or at the next logon by that user. This applies to the profiling agent 115 and to the intelligent agent 145 having access to the Internet.
  • the profiling agent 115 has the searching functionality of the JASPER agent mentioned above and described in International Patent Application WO 96/23265.
  • the JASPER agent stores profiles, or meta information, in respect of documents selected by other users. For each user, it monitors the profiles being input, using the user profile to screen them. If a profile being input would be of interest to the user, it notifies the user.
  • JASPER creates its own database of profiles relating to documents or other objects which are of interest to a closed user group.
  • JASPER uses the user profile to sort meta-information relating to objects that would be of interest to a user in a sophisticated way. That is, it uses clustering techniques to sort user keyword sets into subsets for a user. It can also use clustering to extend the scope of a retrieval exercise to include profiles (or meta-information) relating to objects or documents which are clearly closely related to documents being located by means of the profile but which the profile itself does not directly identify. Documents identified in this way may be presented to a user by means of a "What's New" page at the user interface.
  • the intelligent agent 145 has the same functionality in terms of clustering for search purposes.
  • the difference between the JASPER functionality mentioned above, and that of the intelligent agent 145 accessing the Internet 155 in the present invention is simply the search space involved. Instead of being limited to profiles relating to documents already selected by users and therefore loaded to the JASPER database, the intelligent agent 145 uses the user profiles to search the Internet itself.
  • the intelligent agent 145 may also use clustering techniques to cluster a user's keyword set to create subsets, relating to different interests. These subsets it may feed to conventional search engines, such as the known "YAHOO" engine, to return results more focussed on a search topic within the user's interests.
  • clustering techniques to cluster a user's keyword set to create subsets, relating to different interests. These subsets it may feed to conventional search engines, such as the known "YAHOO" engine, to return results more focussed on a search topic within the user's interests.
  • the system of the present invention presents results to the user using the clustering techniques described in WO 96/23265.
  • the clustering technique is used to identify related objects and to give a measure of the strength of the relationship.
  • the measure of the strength of the relationship can be output as a "star rating" in relation to the link between each pair of objects, or at least between each object and a target object. It can use the relationship tool 125 to generate a set of links between the objects and to use the star rating to determine how (or whether) a set of links is shown. For instance, only the strongest links may be shown, or only first and second layers.
  • a particularly important aspect of embodiments of the present invention is the capability of managing information between users in a manner determined by project profiles.
  • a project profile is created by the profiling tool 115, using the JASPER functionality, from a description entered by a user.
  • the description may be a project description document of the type that might be generated by a corporate entity, or might simply be a few words or pieces of data describing a scenario.
  • the profiling tool generates a project profile which might for instance include the loading date in respect of loading it to the system, the identifier for the user (who will be registered as the project owner), and then keywords characterising the project.
  • the project profile is loaded to the system database 105. It is also loaded to the various search engines of the system in the same way as the user profile described above. Consequently, the various search engines will run the same categories of search, in relation to the project profile, and will therefore report in the same manner, via the browser 170.
  • Search results using the JASPER clustering capability will have an associated star rating applied to the strength of links between objects.
  • This star rating is applied by the relationship tool in the manner described below, by building a graph having different levels of link strengths shown.
  • the graph is presented to the owner of the project who can select the links which are to be accepted or create links between objects if appropriate. If the owner accepts links, the objects connected by the links are loaded to the system database 105 as a virtual case file for that owner and project. Objects connected by links which the owner does not accept are discarded with respect to that owner. If two projects are deemed to be similar and a link is established between them, then any information linked to one project may be associated indirectly with the other project.
  • other users may request to be assigned to a project, or may be assigned by the owner.
  • the system maintains a register of assignment in this way. If one of the assigned users wishes to be shown results of a search relating to a project, they may either be shown the virtual case file selected by the owner or they may be shown the results of a fresh search and enabled to create their own virtual case file. This means that a project profile can actually be tailored to the interest of respective users.

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  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
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  • General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Information Retrieval, Db Structures And Fs Structures Therefor (AREA)
EP98947682A 1997-10-21 1998-10-15 Information management system Expired - Lifetime EP1038240B1 (en)

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EP98947682A EP1038240B1 (en) 1997-10-21 1998-10-15 Information management system

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EP97308360 1997-10-21
EP97308360 1997-10-21
EP98947682A EP1038240B1 (en) 1997-10-21 1998-10-15 Information management system
PCT/GB1998/003101 WO1999021108A1 (en) 1997-10-21 1998-10-15 Information management system

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EP1038240A1 EP1038240A1 (en) 2000-09-27
EP1038240B1 true EP1038240B1 (en) 2002-05-15

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JP (1) JP4312954B2 (ko)
KR (1) KR20010031249A (ko)
CN (1) CN1301365A (ko)
AU (1) AU746138B2 (ko)
CA (1) CA2304626C (ko)
DE (1) DE69805437T2 (ko)
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Publication number Publication date
NZ503682A (en) 2001-09-28
EP1038240A1 (en) 2000-09-27
CA2304626A1 (en) 1999-04-29
US20020073056A1 (en) 2002-06-13
WO1999021108A1 (en) 1999-04-29
AU746138B2 (en) 2002-04-18
JP4312954B2 (ja) 2009-08-12
KR20010031249A (ko) 2001-04-16
CN1301365A (zh) 2001-06-27
JP2001521224A (ja) 2001-11-06
CA2304626C (en) 2007-11-20
DE69805437D1 (de) 2002-06-20
US6424968B1 (en) 2002-07-23
DE69805437T2 (de) 2002-12-12
AU9452098A (en) 1999-05-10

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